New Year's Resolutions
by ikutoandamuforever
Summary: Amu and Ikuto remember their new year's resolution to clean their house before the year ended-on the last day of the year. They scramble to finish cleaning before New Year's Day and bicker over the loads of things that they each hoard. In the midst of their cleaning, Amu and Ikuto take a trip down memory lane as they look through photographs and recall fond memories.


A/N: Long time no see! Well, at least it's been a long time since I've written a story on here. Hope you enjoy this super late new year's story!

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'Twas the day before the new year—December 31st—and two people were up and about, in a rush to clean their house. Amu and Ikuto bustled about, frantically trying to finish cleaning up the house before the arrival of the new year, since they had promised each other beforehand that they would clean the house. Rather, cleaning the house had been their new year's resolution of 2012. Unfortunately for the house, though, Amu and Ikuto had neglected that promise until they both remembered it when they woke up that morning.

"Ikuto!"

"Amu!"

They called out after getting breakfast. "Uh, you go first," said Amu.

"No, ladies first," Ikuto said, smiling.

"Hm, well, I just remembered… Weren't we supposed to clean the house before the year was over? And, er, we haven't even cleaned anything in here."

"Great minds do think alike, after all. That's what I wanted to tell you," Ikuto chuckled softly. "I guess we'd better get to it, then, Amu."

Amu silently responded with a nod. She tugged on her husband's arm and led him up the stairs to the place that needed the most cleaning: their small, walk-in closet. Opening the door to the so-called room of doom, Amu stepped back in an effort to avoid the avalanche of clothing, books, and other small trinkets of sorts, but still ended up getting her feet stuck in the mounds of their belongings. Ikuto had to pick her up and pull her out of the piles so that they could get started on their task. "Uh, when did we ever get this much stuff?" Amu asked sheepishly, scratching her head.

Ikuto merely whistled at the sight before them, knowing that they had a lot of work to do if they were to finish before midnight. "I don't know, but let's sort through the things, shall we?" He picked up some dress shirts and slacks that were scattered around the floor and grabbed some clothes hangers from the drawers, figuring that starting with the easy stuff would make the task less daunting. Amu looked around and did the same with her clothing, hanging up her dresses and folding the other random articles of clothing.

Several piles of clothes put away and a few hours later, the two of them were down to the more interesting stuff, as all that was left of the avalanche (that had almost buried Amu, mind you) were the keepsakes and mementos, stuffed toys and pictures. Amu picked up a shoebox of Ikuto's things, complaining, "Ikuto, why do you have so much stuff? It's everywhere…" She folded her arms and surveyed the remaining objects, then turned to raise an eyebrow at Ikuto.

"You're the one to talk, silly." Ikuto clucked his tongue and grabbed his wife's hand, using it to point out all the things that were hers. "I really don't understand why you have so many of these empty shoeboxes, anyways," he said, picking a shoebox up and shaking it.

"It's not empty!" Amu huffed and snatched the box away from Ikuto. She carefully lifted the lid of the box and showed Ikuto its contents. "See? I put pictures and stuff in them. They're full of memories…" Sitting down on the floor, Amu beckoned Ikuto to sit down next to her, patting the carpet. She pulled out a photo album and flipped through it slowly. As she pointed to the first picture, she said, "Look, that was a picture from our first date and—"

"If my memory serves me correctly, our first date was at the amusement park," Ikuto interrupted with a grin.

Amu pouted and scrunched up her nose, replying, "Okay, get all technical, will you? I meant our first _official_ date, when I wasn't twelve years old, and my parents actually acknowledged our relationship. You know, after you came back. That was, what, five years ago? So I was eighteen…" She trailed off dreamily, staring into space.

Ikuto merely smiled at his wife and tapped her on the nose. "Yeah, you seem to have some fond memories of that time, hm?" He teased, taking the photo album from her and flipping to the next photo. "Another one from our date, eh? I remember this. We went to the planetarium, for old time's sake, and apparently someone wanted to mess with us, 'cause things were popping out of nowhere. You got really freaked out and jumped into my arms, and you accidentally—"

Amu scrambled to cover Ikuto's mouth with her hand. Glaring at him, Amu said through clenched teeth, "You promised that we wouldn't speak of the things that happened that day. Didn't you?"

As Ikuto thought of how scary his wife could be when she wanted to appear that way, he nodded behind Amu's hand, gently removing it from his face. "Alright, calm down, will you? On to the next picture, then." He turned to the next photograph and tapped the plastic cover of it fondly. "My first official concert…"

"Yep, and I captured it all on film," Amu stated proudly, winking at her husband. "You were so happy that day because you got to play with your father for the first time after he returned. And it was a private one at that, so our families were the only ones in attendance." Her fond smile reappeared and she looked shyly at Ikuto before looking down at her hands. "I remember that your music was so beautiful… Not that it wasn't before, of course. But at that concert, for the first time, your violin playing didn't sound like it was giving off a melancholic sound, the bittersweet feeling that it had the first time I heard you play in the park. I was really happy because I knew that you were really happy, too." She twiddled her thumbs before daring a glance upwards, only to find Ikuto with one of the most caring expressions he had ever shown her.

Ikuto's eyes shone as he lovingly stared at his wife, awed by her honest confession. He gingerly brought his hand to Amu's cheek before giving it a soft pinch. His look turned mischievous as he pulled on her cheeks, bringing about a flurry of protests. "Hey, Ikuto, what are you doing? Sh-top—that hurtshh. Let go!" Her words were muffled as she tried to speak with Ikuto pinching her cheeks. In her distraction, Ikuto leaned in and gave his wife a gentle kiss, catching her unawares. Amu blinked a few times before closing her eyes. He always knew how to surprise her.

Pulling away slowly, Ikuto lifted Amu's chin and kissed her nose and her forehead before looking at her again. "I love you, Amu."  
Amu blushed at his words, replying with a soft, "I know," and an even softer, "I love you, too, Ikuto." Her words did not go unnoticed, though, and Ikuto smiled.

"Time to get back to work, then. Next picture!"

Things went on like this for about another hour as Ikuto and Amu simply exchanged their task of cleaning for one of recalling pleasant memories and experiences, enjoying each other's company. There were pictures that the two of them had taken on other dates, at Amu's high school and college graduation, hanging out with the old Guardians plus Utau and Ikuto, at Utau's sold-out concerts, at Ikuto's debut with the local orchestra, on vacations in Europe where Amu got to see what Ikuto saw when he left in search of his father, and many more. And there was a special album devoted to holding pictures from Amu and Ikuto's wedding.

The couple had gotten married just earlier that year and subsequently moved into the house they were currently supposed to be cleaning. Ikuto looked on, amused, as Amu excitedly talked about their wedding, looking through pictures of her wedding dress, their wedding cake, Ikuto in a tuxedo, Amu and Ikuto's friends and family in attendance, and Amu and Ikuto standing together, smiling exuberantly on their wedding day; if one looked closely, though, there were some small pieces of cake decorating their clothes.

Everything had gone exactly as planned. Well, sort of. Amu recounted the magnificent start to their wedding day, and how everything was going well until a group of stray cats came to crash the party. Ikuto and Amu both speculated that the attendance of the cats meant that Yoru was definitely around—always present in Ikuto's heart—and on that particular day, his character's presence happened to be even stronger. They figured that Yoru didn't want to miss such an important day, after all. Amu's characters, on the other hand, took the liberty of appearing through the awesome wedding cake—Suu's work, no doubt, the amazing decorations, courtesy of Miki, the energetic announcer speaking through the microphone, who had a personality like Ran's, and the sparkling radiance that Amu emitted that day in her joy and excitement had to mean Dia was shining in Amu's heart. And although the presence of their characters was very reassuring, Amu laughed at the memory of the stray cats pouncing on the cake and refreshments on the tables, thus splattering the happy couple with white frosting and cake pieces, which, fortunately, were not too visible in their wedding photo.

He didn't want to interrupt Amu's adorable daydreaming, but Ikuto waved a hand in front of Amu's face before pinching Amu's nose as he tried to bring Amu back to the reality of the cleaning that they still had to finish. "Amu, hello, are you still there? We're still not done cleaning." He smiled as Amu blinked a few more times and focused on him, regaining her senses.

"Oh, alright. Back to work. But this is actually pretty fun, Ikuto! And now you definitely can't say that all of this stuff we're going through is only mine, right? I mean, this is shared property," Amu explained happily.

Ikuto simply shook his head, laughing softly, and said, "Whatever you say, my dear wife. As long as we can finish this for our 2012 new year's resolution while it's still 2012."

Having gone through the last of the pictures, Amu and Ikuto moved onto the shoeboxes of knickknacks and souvenirs. Ikuto pulled out a stuffed cat toy that Amu had jokingly bought for him as an April Fools' Day present, as she referred to Ikuto's cat-like nature and qualities. Amu exclaimed at the sight of it, surprised that Ikuto had kept it after all these years. In fact, Ikuto had even bought the cat a little cat friend, since even stray cats need friends. "Ikuto, you still have this? I thought you didn't like it when I gave it to you."

Grinning to hide his slight blush, Ikuto replied, "You shouldn't be that surprised. I love everything that you give me, everything that you put your thought into. Besides, I was only a little miffed that you meant to give me a real cat's toy before you ended up giving me a stuffed cat instead. I wanted that squeaky mouse, you know." Amu could tell by Ikuto's expression that he was teasing her again and simply smiled, this time as the one with the mischievous expression on her face.

"I can get you one of those right now," she said, standing up. "Come on, Ikuto, let's go to the pet store." Amu grabbed Ikuto's hand and helped him to his feet and snatched up the house keys on their way out. Ikuto followed without objections, chuckling as he realized that they were on another detour from their cleaning, but glad to be going outside and spending more time with Amu. For that matter, he would go anywhere as long as Amu was with him, he thought to himself as he held tight to Amu's hand.

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A/N: This is part one of two (I think two, possibly more if I feel like it) of this little story. I had this idea on New Year's Eve, actually, and have been meaning to write out the full story. It's meant to be fluff :) since I like writing that. But will work on stories with real plots some time in the future. Feedback is much appreciated! :)


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